The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1887-12-01
OUR LAND or CANAAN


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THE STATE wHnnE TIN ORANGE
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4 when those spies came back from the
land Of Canaan, staggering under the
weight Of gigantic bunchss Of grapes,
how the mouths Of the travol-worn
children Of Israel must have watered -
they reveled in anticipation Of the luz
uries Of the Promised Landi When We
see basket Of Florida oranges gleam-
ing In the market perhaps We feel
longing to sojourn in the land which
produced them. II Ponce dc Leon had
foreseen the productiveness Of the land
he discovered when the Easter anthems
were pealing in the great cathedrals st
home he would have named Il the land
Of fruits and flowers. II d delightful TO
read glowing descriptions Of the luscious
fruits Of the equatorial regions. One
sees In his mind the pine and the banana
growing on their native stalks In the
tangled wealth Of . tropical forest. One
sees che stufty date palm towering
over the yellow sand Of the Ara
bian desert and smells the frag-
rancs Of those breezes which per-
fume their wings In the dark shades
of the nutmeg and cinnamon forests in
the Spice islands; but, alasl one also
sees the fierce tiger crouching in the
Jungle, hears the roar Of the lion, the
laugh Of the hyens and the hiss Of
venomous erpents-inhabitants Of this
earthly paradise. Sixty hours ride in
comfortable railway car and steamboat
will take you to land where you can
enjoy the luxuries of the tropics and e.
cage the dangers. All you have to do is
to avoid the jaws Of an alligator. Flor.
ida, the Canaan Of the United States, is
. division Of that panorama of the world
which our wonderful country offers to
view. In its limits one can see the world
and taste most of its fruits. You
can have q realistic representation
of q Siberian winter in Minnesota,
you can appreciate the heat right under
the equator by passing the summer in
the nations capital. You can see more
than the Alps amid the Rocky noun
tains, and ride forldays over the sandy
plains Of New Mexico and experience
Sahara. In Florida you have the tropics,
and more than the tropics. For without
languishing under torrid suns, and with
out fear Of ferocious beasts, you can
pluck the orange, the lemon, the lime,
the citron and the banana, and then find
by the side Of these luscious fruits the
homely apple, the blushing peach and
the melting pear to remind you Of the
old farm in the North. These fruits of
the tropics are not the stale affairs we
see In the North, ripened ON shipboard
or in cellar, and exposed in fruit
erer's shop to the dust and CRIME Of .
great city, but fresh from their native
vines.
, After you pass below 80o latitude
groves Of wild orange trees stud the
land esnd when in blossom cast their
fragrance to the breeze. Whether they
are indigenous or whether the seeds were
planted by one Of Ponce dc Icons fol-
lowers to rerpetuate in the new world
the orange groves Of Seville comes not
in the scope Of this paper. There they
are wild and sour, for the original
orange ID always sour and the sweet
orange must be budded ON this wild
stalk to produce the fruit we eat. Pre-
vious to 1885 the orange crop of Florida
was Of importance, but in that year an
unusually severe spell Of weather set In,
the mercury falling below zero, and
caused widespread destruction to the
orange groves. The farmers set to work
planting out new cuttings, and these
had barely attained an age to give hopes
of renewal Of prosperity, when the
orange coccus appeared in 1842. For
eleven years this mischievous insect 90
journed in the State and totally destroyed
every tree he visited, defying all efforts
to dfslodge him. In 1858 he departed a.
suddenly - he came, and from this year
the present orange production Of the
State must be dated.
Unless one possesses to . large degree
the virtue Of patience, II 10 not advisable
to try raising oranges from the seed. II
will be certainly seven and likely ton
years before fruit win be produced.
Budded stalks will yield fruit In about
three years. In Italy tree ID called full
grown after six crops, or rather when II
will yield say one hundred oranges from
this point It steadily Ascends until 1,000
oranges may be gathered from it
branches, and It will produce fruit foI
seventy years. II bears one crop yearly,
blossoms In May, and the fruit win cling
to the branches until December sets in.
In Italy oranges ere generally barreled
in September, cut green, and the flavor
is said to be improved by 90 doing. The
Florida orange excels the 6icilian, and
closely presses the Cuban fruit in point
of excellence.
The lemon and lime, the propagation
and cultivation (which are identical will
the orange, are grown in great perfec
tion, excelling those produced In thu
Mediterranean countries to such an OK
tent that natives Of those lands otter
claim the Florida fruit to be . new species
: claim however, that cannot b easily
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